Serket

by Micha F. Lindemans

"She who causes the throat to breath". An Egyptian scorpion-goddess, and an early a tutelary deity of the Egyptian monarchs. She is one of the goddess who guards the canopic jars containing the viscera of the deceased. From this association she came to be a tutelary goddess of the dead. She is represented as a woman with a scorpion on her head or with a scorpion-shaped headdress, but also with a scorpion body and a human head. Serket was called upon to avert venomous bites and stings.